News

Front Row For Katsuaki As Joan Fights Hard

May 17, 2010

WSS, Kyalami, South Africa, 15 May 2010Katsuaki Fujiwara (Kawasaki Motocard.com) had the honour of finishing top Kawasaki rider in WSS qualifying at Kyalami, fourth overall. His team-mate Joan Lascorz starts the race eighth on the grid.

Katsuaki's front row qualification came is slightly peculiar circumstances, as he set a personal best lap of 1'41.415, exactly the same lap time set by the rider ranked third on the grid, Michele Pirro. Kats was a threat all through qualifying, and got his reward with his second front row start of 2010.

The Kyalami track surface, bumpy and scarred, was a tough one for both Katsuaki and Joan to find a good set-up for, with Joan in particular unable to use his usual prowess in late braking. This is the first time in 2010 that Joan has not been on the front row with his Ninja ZX-6R, but he knows that improvements can be made in terms of real race pace on Sunday.

Katsuaki Fujiwara: "We had a good start to our season this year, but in Monza we went in the wrong way with set-up. When we came to Kyalami we found a better way, after good work from all in the team. We are still a bit behind the leading riders in setting one fast lap time but things are going well and I am looking forward to making a good start in the race."

Joan Lascorz: "We had more than one problem trying to set the bike up today and we could not get to the lap times we wanted. I have some trouble in braking. We will try things out again in warm-up. The track temperature will be important tomorrow and I am sure we will have a better race pace than our qualifying pace."